Unrealistic request from the soundperson at church...

[Earl49]

Originally Posted by cattzap

....They had a decent system , but everyone messed with it so they wanted it locked into a room down the hall that they could keep locked.... In our area, there's really no good company that small entities can call or trust. My wife keeps telling me to start up one, but I don't know. I don't know what/who the big churches use. The few I've been in looks like they have a nice system and a good source of people to work with.

Cattzap, I have not read this whole thread but you are describing very common problems with churches. I get asked all the time to suggest remedial acoustics treatment (what I do professionally) and also suggest new audio equipment (which I no longer do). They usually have champagne dreams and generic soda budgets, and at least three radically different / uninformed ideas as to their needs. Churches can be challenging to work with. For a long time, I stopped taking churches on as clients.

I had one church where half of the committee said, "you cannot make this space TOO reverberant for our taste" while the pastor and the rest of the committee wanted speech to be easily understood, especially among his elderly flock. This is kinda like saying you want 100 mpg and 1200 HP in the same vehicle. The sound system has to work with the room acoustics, and cannot overcome its deficiencies.

When I've specified a sound system, I like to have the EQ and power amps in a locked rack or room, with only a few trustworthy people having the key. I also document the initial settings like you did, with either photos or mark-ups of the control panels from the manuals. Once things are royally messed up by knob-twiddlers the system can be put back again without the substantial effort of a full re-commissioning of the whole system.

[moon]

Still having trouble? Try blackmail. Find out what he's into and keep the negatives in a safe.

[Gypsyblue]

Originally Posted by moon

Still having trouble? Try blackmail. Find out what he's into and keep the negatives in a safe.

Nah. This has been a real learning experience for me and I'm grateful.

I bought this amp stand with a matching mic boom and I now have my amp at the front of the stage facing me - not the congregation.

Doesn't feel odd at all. In fact it's more comfortable because that's the way I play at home: standing or sitting in front of my amp with the amp facing me.

That's my tweed Princeton (in a Harvard cabinet) sitting in the new On Stage Stand for the photo.

Whole thing cost me about $60.